A mobile station user can dial a predetermined number, such as a customer service number, to reach an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system which may provide one or more selected items of information to the user, or route the call to a call center per the user's request. Once the call reaches the call center, an agent speaks to the customer to resolve her need.
The IVR system interacts with the caller, by collecting caller's inputs entered using a telephone keypad and responding with voice. For example, when the caller dials a customer service number, the IVR system greets the caller with audio content and guides her using audio step-by-step instructions providing the caller with available choices, such as press 1 for hearing your balance, press 2 for bill information, etc. When the caller presses a selected key, the IVR responds with an audio response based on the pressed key.
Per caller's request, a call can be transferred to a call center to enable the caller to speak with a live person. While a call is delivered to the call center, one business objective is on completing the call as quickly as possible. This is typically measured by the average handling time (AHT) for each live agent at the call center. In order to help the agent to meet this objective, information collected in the IVR system is delivered to the live agent.
In particular, each menu and option in the IVR system has a unique code associated with that menu and option. When a caller interacts with the IVR system, the caller's actions are identified by Activity identifications (IDs) that represent codes of the menus and options selected by the caller.
The call from the IVR system is delivered to the call center via a computer telephony integration (CTI) unit. This unit allows data to be passed from the IVR system to the agent's desktop terminal, together with a voice call. As the CTI unit transfers the call from the IVR system to the call center, the Activity IDs associated with the caller are concatenated in the CTI unit for delivery to the call center. An Automated Customer Support System (ACSS) arranged at the call center translates the Activity IDs into a readable text which is then displayed by the agent's desktop terminal when the agent communicates with the caller. This text indicates the last location in the IVR system flow reached by the caller before the call was transferred to the call center.
However, Activity IDs provide limited information and may not allow a live agent to understand the actual intent of the respective caller. For example, if the caller presses 0 at the payment menu, the Activity ID representing the payment menu will be delivered to the call center. The ACSS would translate this code into text like “customer trying to perform payment in IVR.” In reality, the customer may have a specific issue relating to payments. For example, the customer may need to know how to make a credit card payment.
Hence, the live agent does not have sufficient information about a caller's intent in order to address the issue raised by the caller as quickly as possible. The need exists for a technique to provide a live agent with information that would enable the agent to quickly identify the purpose of the call and reduce inquiry time.